Re:CREATORS – 18

「すべて不完全な僕たちは As long as we’re alive, we have to enjoy our lives to the fullest.」 (Subete Fukanzen na Bokutachi wa)
“All of Us Are Incomplete As long as we’re alive, we have to enjoy our lives to the fullest.”

Who knew, apparently Re:Creators does have a way of tying its loose ends together this season. After weeks of teasing, ambiguity, or outright avoidance of matters, every major outstanding piece (more or less) fell into place this week. Blitz has been neutralized, Souta’s function revealed, and Altair reduced to her final expendable chess piece. Sure there’s still four episodes to go, but at this stage the ending is there for all to see.

The big twist this week of course was Magane’s little chat with Souta boy. While shark teeth still retains her manipulative edge, colour me surprised how she implemented her ability not just for herself, but also for the dweeb. Confusing Miracle Maid argument or not (and it was a little convoluted), the takeaway from this scene is twofold. Firstly is Magane removing the acceptance limit on both herself and Souta. For Magane this makes sense, as she so devilishly hints destroying Altair won’t do a thing to affect best girl’s real world status—that would ruin the fun (and what may come after this season). For Souta, however, it largely confirms how Altair will be beaten. The specifics are currently unknown, but with Souta freed from the shackles of mob rule, he can implement his character/story idea at will without the need for approval. Slightly disappointed Souta’s character didn’t turn out to be Erina in disguise, but this does set up Souta to atone for his jealous rejection of Setsuna by extirpating Altair. In effect, Magane has enabled Souta to evolve from a simple, self-styled observer into Re:Creators’ main character. Or, in the show’s meta parlance, from someone writing only for himself to someone willing to share his work far and wide.

The other important bit here was Altair’s party, which has quickly disintegrated down to two members. Alice’s betrayal was weeks in the making, but it’s still funny seeing Blitz join the good guys so fast and Shou defeated by the best the fourth wall has to offer. Mamika 2.0—complete with theme song—may have also had something to do with things, but probably not in the manner she originally intended. Unless your name is Nishio of course. Charon, however, is the interesting one. He gives Celestia her first real challenge, and if looks are anything to go by, might have a little “enhancement” courtesy of Altair’s eclectic ability set (which ironically failed to detect Erina’s resurrection). Souta may be the final solution to Altair in the end, but we need a little pain and suffering before busting out those big guns. Plenty of room left for a twist or two should the audience’s fickle demands call for it, and I bet Charon will easily tackle whatever is thrown at him. Re:Creators might be quickly approaching its end, but the fun and games are just getting started.

http://randomc.net/image/Re%20Creators/Re%20Creators%20-%2018%20-%20Large%2014.jpg
I am now officially starting to Ship Magane with Souta. I couldn’t ship Celestia with Souta, due to how Celestia eventually needs to return to her own world unless Souta wants to turn himself to an anime character. But, with Magane liking the real world, I feel Magane x Souta is feasible. I have to say. From the start, I had imagine Magane to be like Junko Enoshima (danganronpa), a girl whose only wish is to bring despair to others for her own pure entertainment. But now she is more like a Good female version of Izaya Orihara (durarara), saying she likes humans. She is actually better compared to Izaya since she actually did a level of profound good.

On the side note, I can imagine why Creations keep saying “food here is good.” Their taste in food is Only limited to the food that their Creators have tasted or imagine something is tasted. If my logic is right, Magane’s reaction is reasonable since the food she ate was “limited” to what her Creator had tasted when he lived in Japan. It’s like saying she know what Pizza, from Pizza Hut, taste like but never tried Pizza from Papa Johns.

Speaking of magical girls. I imagine that the audience is confused in why Alice said “Mamika”

http://randomc.net/image/Re%20Creators/Re%20Creators%20-%2018%20-%20Large%2029.jpg
How many WALLS were destroyed in this scene? “I heard it from the person who wrote it.” It’s like a nuclear explosion obliterated Many walls! I personally found it funny that Sho, and the Entire audience, said “Whaaaaat!” simultaneously- not sure if that can occur in real life.
Recall Episode 8 where Yuya attacked his Creator, I was wondering what calmed the angry Yuya but now I understand that telling Yuya the “future” had helped things. If I had to imagine how big of a spoiler that was, I would imagine that it is like how fans were spoiled to know what One Piece was.

Anyway, while harming his god was Risky, Yuya was able to get some Payback on his God by revealing some Spoilers!! Now that is a method of Angering god without risking the destruction of his own world.

Sho- “What a dumb story.”
Me- Geee, yeah. I am SURE a LOT of anime characters would say the same thing for their own stories!

Random fan girl – “Sho and Yuya finally-“
I am sure this girl is going to write her own yaoi doujinshi.

As for Charon. In episode 12 we can recall that Charon was “looking for someone.” Was it Celestia? I thought he wants to meet his Creator. I am not sure why Charon betrayed Celestia, in his story, but I can imagine that Charon had some personal reasons. If Charon = Sasuke Uchiha then things would REALLY be interesting.

@maou
It’s like those insistent BatmanxHarley shippers even though Harley is known to torture and kill a lot of people for fun together with the Joker. They often use “Joker’s order” and “abused girlfriend” as excuses to sweep all of Harley’s crimes under the rug just to ship her with Batman.

@maou
In Magane’s case, she can use freely the “I was born this way” card and everyone would know it’s true. She was created as a psychotic villain for her story and made to enjoy murder the same way Selesia and company carry a chronic hero syndrome.

Personally, I’d find her choices after she started developing her own personality more disturbing in a theoretical Magane x Shouta pairing. Her murder score might have plummeted, but she enjoyed trying to break Shouta with words. In the best case scenario, she might stop being a killer but she could easily become a very toxic influence. But hey, it’s not as if the concept of “Bastard Boyfriend” isn’t popular, so…

Let’s say this, Angelus, I REALLY hate when main characters end up being single. We often see, in some anime, where when two characters come from different worlds then one character has to go back to his world. Which is why I couldn’t ship Souta and Celestia due to how Celestia wants to return to her own world and it may not be feasible to take Souta with her. Magane x Souta is possible since Magane doesn’t want to return to her own world. Not to mention Magane does like Souta, at least from my view. I have yet to see any positive romantic development between Souta and Celestia; they are only friends at this point.

You can still get badly injured even when wearing a ballistic vest; she probably has severe bruising and possibly broken bones. She’s bleeding slightly from the mouth rather than coughing up blood so she probably cut the inside of her cheek when she hit the floor after being shot rather than sustaining serious internal injury.

The kinetic energy and momentum from the bullet would need to go somewhere. When you are wearing body armor, the “somewhere” is dispersed over the armor but presses against the wearer’s chest. A reasonably powerful gun firing at short range can shatter the armor wearer’s ribs.

Anime tends to over-exaggerate the whole “bleeding from the mouth” drama.

But in this case, it’s entirely plausible and justified. Frankly, a petite woman like her should have been been knocked unconscious by blunt-force trauma and shock.

A bullet being stopped by a bullet-proofed chest is still going to have its ribs broken, especially at point-blank range. Looking at Blitz’s gun – and given Japanese fascination with oversized things – it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s firing the equivalent of a 44 Magnum revolver. That’s 250 grains with a lot of energy. Even if it doesn’t penetrate a non-plated vest, it’s definitely going to inflict blunt-force trauma injuries as if the victim were bludgeoned. With those kinds of impacts, the ribs crack, scything inward within the chest cavity, and puncture the lungs, causing the victim to spit blood.

NOTE: there is no frickin’ way that little form-fitting “bullet-proof” vest of her’s has enough layers (let alone Ballistic plating) to stop Blitz’s shots unless he’s firing a pea-shooter.

-NOTE: there is no frickin’ way that little form-fitting “bullet-proof” vest of her’s has enough layers (let alone Ballistic plating) to stop Blitz’s shots unless he’s firing a pea-shooter.-
Unless magic was involved to slightly improve the protective gear.

Anyway, I thank you everyone for the responses. Appreciate it. The logic, with the protective gear, did restore my sense of physics since it would explain how Suruga “bounced” a bit after getting hit in the previous episode. It wouldn’t make sense if she was given that much of a push if the bullet pierced through her body.

-Someone I know got exactly that injury just from playing soccer, let alone being hit point blank by a .44 slug.-
And Jesus. So blood came out of his mouth? This is a normal human we are talking about. While Celestia was able to recover from her fight with Mamika, having injuries that caused blood to come out of her mouth yet she didn’t even go to a hospital, I don’t think the same logic applies to normal humans. Hope your friend is ok.

As everyone else pointed out, a bullet proof vest only stops the bullet from puncturing your body. A direct hit—especially from close range–will leave a nasty bruise at best, and broken ribs and some internal bleeding at worst. The point of these vests are to stop even worse injuries, particularly to organs like the heart which don’t take well to extra holes drilled through them.

if anyone can clarify what im about to say then please do otherwise this is a development that reeks of shoddy writing: Yuuya said that he was under the impression that his friend, Shou, was only fighting with him because he really wanted to hang out; ultimately not realizing that Shou was coming after him because he was convinced Yuuya killed his sister and one of his friends. So you’re telling me that throughout Yuuya’s story, Shou never once shouted out that he wants to get revenge for the death of his sister and friend, believing that yuuya was the murderer? He certainly had no problem screaming it on the top of his lungs many times to him so im supposed to believe that he never once mentioned it to Yuuya in the source material; enough to the point that at least Yuuya would question what was going on. Sure Yuuya didnt know who the actual culprit was or that Shou was convinced that Yuuya was a murderer back in his source material, but that doesnt absolve the fact that their feud lasted this long without Yuuya understanding what was going on.

Then we find out that the fortune teller tricked had tricked Shou all along and it just so happened that Shou instantly accepted what he heard as truth even though he and Yuuya were supposed to be best friends before all that??? They try to hand-wave it as Shou just being hot-headed but still; it’s silly writing. It’s like the show when out of it’s way to make a meta joke that it forget that its writing should still stay cohesive. The show kinda points out how wishy-washy the spoiler reveal is but that doesnt give it a free pass just because it called its own self out on this writing issue. The problem isnt even the nature of the reveal more than it is how the dilemma between Yuuya and Shou even began. Now i know someone might respond that that’s the whole point of the meta-narrative; that yatoji’s writing probably isnt all that good and that is the nature of his story but still….i guess that could fly but the actual show relies on this shaky writing to solve one of its dilemma’s. I dont know whether to find that witty or just thoughtless. All i know is that the happentance behind Shou and Yuuya’s feud is kind of dumb﻿

I think it’s a parody of aniseries with hidden/unexpected mastermind villians.
One example is Persona 4 the Animation (and source game) where the seemingly normal gas station worker you meet at the start ends up being the mastermind of 4′s events.

Yea i get the parody (persona 4′s reveal works better for reasons i dont feel like getting into) but it’s not about the fact that the reveal was that some fortune teller was behind this insidious plot more than it is the fact that Yuuya was never cognizant of the fact of why Shou was so upset at him. The writing leading to their feud is just kind of dumb even though the source material and the show expected its audience to take it so seriously. Again, Re:creators was so concerned about being meta, it failed to truly understand how to effectively stage a scenario such as the one between shou and Yuuya in a way that felt convincingly plausible and well-written for the show in general. Once again, maybe im supposed to think it’s all shoddy writing but then again i feel conflicted about whether the show earned that tongue-and-cheek kind of scenario; something just feels a bit unpolished about the execution. Maybe it’s just me; i got to think it over a bit more amongst the other things this show does to frustrate me)

It’s more like Yuya didn’t care what Sho spout as an excuse to fight him. Yuya just enjoyed the fighting. That’s a weird kind of friendship btw, but I’ve seen stranger things in anime. Also, Yuya mentioned something about leaving Sho without saying a word, and in previous episodes, it was mentioned that their friendship didn’t fall out solely due to the killing of the two characters but also because Yuya decided to lead a certain gang or something. All in all, we don’t know the details of the fictional manga enough to make a proper judgement. This is where suspension of disbelief play a part so that we can just go with what the characters said and their impression.

“The last boss from Exclusive Underground and the ex-captain of a military outpost of Team STRAY Dogs. He used to be the best friend of Syo Hakua, the hero of this story, but he murdered their friend Rokkakku Araki and Syo’s sister, Kokonoka, and deserted the team. He established the association Arajin and conquered Sacred Tree Kuronagimaru and the spirit Hangaku. In order to gain control of the territory of Adachi ward, which had turned into a lawless land after a huge natural disaster, he fights against Syo.”

Being a deserter and a conquering ganglord in a post-apocalyptic setting would be enough reason for a heroic character to oppose Yuuya, personal revenge or not.

That said, I agree with sonicsenryaku that it defies suspension of disbelief that Yuuya didn’t know of that personal motive until arriving to this world. I mean, it’s basically all that Syo has shouting since he faced him in this world and the backstory does point out they were BFFs before the fallout. Had Yuuya said “I didn’t know who killed them until now and I was sure you wouldn’t believe the word of a deserter”, I would have less trouble believing it.

@Mistic
Yuya also has this crazy concept of people like to hang out with him by battling him to death, so him being ignorant of other things is hardly a notable complaint for the manga by that standard. The MC himself said that the story is rather dumb, so I think that’s enough suspension of disbelief right there. Just like believing that a certain song is popular in a movie even though it sounds terrible to the audience. Also, don’t forget that people are capable of liking dumb stories IRL (see Twilight & SW7) and Sho-Yuya’s manga looks like a fujoshi-bait too, so there’s that.

@Oby no one is saying that you cant like dumb stories (i like a bunch of them), but that doesnt mean you give a pass for everything that is dumb (you cant just create headcanon to defend everything and think that defense is absolute). The issue here is that im not sure if Re:creators intentionally constructed Yuuya’s story to have a lack of suspension of disbelief as a way of criticizing the story or did they just not think out the cohesiveness of Shou’s feud with Yuuya. With the fact that Re: creators writing has some weak moments, i wasnt really so sure. I guess after giving it a bit more thought, im more inclined to believe that perhaps Re:creators was cognizant of this the whole time

The MC himself said that the story is rather dumb, so I think that’s enough suspension of disbelief right there. Just like believing that a certain song is popular in a movie even though it sounds terrible to the audience.

Wait, when did that happen? What I remember is that episode 14 explicetely used the conflict between Yuuya’s Creator and the others as a plot point, with Yatoji Ryo berating Nakanogane’s and Matsubara’s ideas for being “too simple”. He complained that Nakanogane’s introduction didn’t match well with his story’s worldview and blamed it on the poor level of his usual audience:

“Your stories are for kids, so you might be able to get away with stuff like that”.

Like sonicsenryaku, I suspect that a lack of consistency is in play. When it was necessary to create drama, Yatoji’s story and characters were “too sophisticated”. However, when they want to use it for laughs, suddenly they aren’t.

Exactly; and when i say “more inclined to give re:creators the benefit of the doubt”, i mean it in the sense that im more willing to see the positive side of this argument, but that i still stand by my stance that therethere’s something overly convenient about the writing. Convenience in writing isnt always a negative, but not when it violates things such as suspension of disbelief. And if there were such a casr that Souta called out Yuuya’s story for being kind of dumb, as mystic pointed out, that image is not held consistent throughout the series

@Mistic & sonic (reposting coz I apparently missed the reply button)
Didn’t Sho said it himself that the story is kinda dumb in this episode? Also, just because something is complicated doesn’t mean that it can’t be dumb. Just watch/read how convoluted and rather dumb the later parts of Bleach are. It doesn’t help that the author of Sho/Yuya’s manga resembles Kubo Tite a lot :p

@Oby Shou didnt say the novel was dumb; he was just remarking at how silly the spoiler reveal feels which again goes back to Re:creators trying to be self-aware and “clever” by hand-waving shit but you cant always get away with that. On another note, i think you’re missing the point about mystics argument. When Yatoji was criticizing his colleagues, he was depreciating the quality of their work while bolstering his own. In essence, he was saying that their writing lacked polish and nuance. They dont know how to set up storytelling devices to engage an intelligible audience properly or how to write impactful scenes. This implies that he believes that he has/possess these skills and puts them on display when writing his novels and that puts his work on a level that his colleague’s novels arent. Basically, the show frames the author of Yuuya’s story as a person who seems to know what he is talking about, especially since the others dont necessarily pass any solid critiques back to his story that would seem authentic. Then with this ep, you have it to where Yatoji is being framed as a hackney-eyed writer; so which one is it? Is the joke that Yatoji thinks really highly of himself and believes he possesses writing acumen above that of others? Was this supposed to be a reveal that Yatoji was a shoddy writer or was this an oversight on Re:creators part because it felt the need to get really meta? With this show and it’s directing and execution, i just dont know.

I think we all understand that a story being complicated doesnt mean it cant be dumb. As a matter of fact, you never want your story to feel complicated. You want to have layers and depth that may require fastidious introspection to appreciate, but most of the time you dont want it to be complicated. And a story being dumb can also have it’s charm depending on it’s execution. But again, in this case, Yuuya’s story’s writing comes off as amateurish and vapid rather than charmingly dumb and so i didnt find the spoiler joke to be all that effective as a result. So then going back to your statement about a story being complicated also possessing the ability to be dumb, what exactly are you arguing here? Are you agreeing that the yuuya/shou dispute is kind of dumb now? are you saying that it’s okay that it’s dumb (i also think it’s okay for things to be dumb given the context and what the aim is)? do you just think Re:creators is a flawless series?

Is the joke that Yatoji thinks really highly of himself and believes he possesses writing acumen above that of others? Was this supposed to be a reveal that Yatoji was a shoddy writer…

I think you already answered your own question there to some degree. To continue my comparison with Bleach and its author, there was a time when Bleach is considered a fine, polished and nuanced story especially in its first two arcs. The story is rather mature for a shonen series especially when it deals with real issues of young people accepting the lost of family members and to go on with their lives, the characters and their quirks worked, the twist and setup were impeccable, the author, Kubo Tite, became the hottest stuff and one of the most revered mangakas in the industry but then something happened. The story felt repetitive in subsequent arcs, all the setups and twists were either squandered or turned into pretty much nothing, some characters become useless or turned into caricatures of themselves (or both) and the new twists became dumb and reeks of convenience. Yet, Bleach still had legions of fans who were rooting for its various characters like the fans of Sho/Yuya’s manga in this episode. In short, even an excellent mangaka can slip up (due to various circumstances) or thinks too highly of himself or both. What we see in this episode is just a small sample of what can happen to shonen mangakas like Yatoji (especially those who think highly of themselves). Of course, it is possible that Yatoji can better himself at the end of this story, especially now that his supposed huge twist got spoiled to the masses (probably a twist that’s meant as huge as Aizen twist in Bleach). Now he has to work extra hard to make an even better story. Even during the confrontation between Yatoji & Matsubara some episodes ago, we are shown how Yatoji realized that Matsubara’s “childish” script for crossover can indeed work for his story with some little modifications. That can be inferred as Matsubara (a light novel writer) being more skilled in writing than what Yatoji (a mangaka) would like to admit, or Yatoji is not as good as he claimed to be at that point, or both.

Are you agreeing that the yuuya/shou dispute is kind of dumb now? are you saying that it’s okay that it’s dumb (i also think it’s okay for things to be dumb given the context and what the aim is)?

Maybe. Again, we don’t know the manga that originated Sho & Yuya so we can’t really judge how dumb it actually is. And if we talk about long confrontation in shonen series then yes, they can turn into something dumb especially if they involve some twists. If you follow Naruto then you surely know how dumb the Tobi/Obito reveal is. He was one of the few reasons the great ninja war arc happened in the manga with his meticulous planning yet his core reasoning for doing what he’s doing was so dumb that I won’t spoil here. That dumb twist aside, even the conflict between Naruto & Sasuke grew sillier as the time goes on (mostly Sasuke’s fault). And don’t get me started on other mangas like Fairy Tail. So, if R:C portrayed Sho & Yuya’s confrontation as something that is ultimately dumb, they’d still be correct in portraying some shonen mangas out there.

do you just think Re:creators is a flawless series?

Try to read my other RandomC comments in previous episodes pages. If you did then you can certainly see that I never consider R:C to be perfect or flawless. Heck, when someone said that R:C is the AOTY, I scoff at the idea a little since I can easily name a couple (or more) other anime titles that are better (not necessarily from action-fantasy genre). And you can see my other comments below in this very page replying to zztop just below your comments where I said that R:C lacks in some execution and wasted quite a number of potentials.

-i would like to watch each of the character with their own anime after they have finish airing this entire series.-

Mm? Really? They are planning to do that? News to me. To be honest, when I first watched this anime, I thought the author was thinking along the lines –“Mmmmmm, Gee, I have so many Cool characters I have in mind, but I am cannot choose what the main genre of my story would be. It wouldn’t make sense if I have a Magical Girl, Magical Knight, Giant Robot, and cyberpunk gunman all in one story. It would take me Years just to write these individually, and they may not be even popular. Oh wait! Why don’t I just make a Massive crossover where all these characters meet each other in modern Japan!”

Or maybe in the Light Novels he went through quite an ordeal and turned evil (Celestia is from the Anime so she wouldn’t know about it). The spoilers Marie gave might have foreshadowed this, as quite a few dark things happened in Matsubara’s story.

Okay, was anyone NOT expecting Yuuya’s revelation? I’m pretty sure we could all see it coming miles away, but damn the delivery was absolutely hilarious.

Magane’s talk was Souta was oddly heartwarming. After using him for fun, it’s like she considers him a friend of sorts now. Now when you consider that Magane is a villain, does she even have friends in her world?

-This is a mystery that I have been wondering since I started watching anime…. but the hell do women fight in those high heels?! It’s insane I tells ya!-
That’s sort of a fashion trend to make female fighters look cooler. Recall that superheroes/villains, like Wonder Woman or Cat Woman (note, I am giving other examples aside from anime), also wear high heels but that is mostly just for fashion in the same way a Superhero would wear a cape even though it is hazardous; fun fact, in real life a celebrity, Madonna, falls off the stage because she wore a cape.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M68ndaZSKa8 (just to illustrate how lethal fashion is)

Anyway, point, the high heels is just a useless fashion. IF anything, in a real fight, it would hinder a female fighter when it comes to proper footing. Also, the high-heels is likely linked to the fetish of a certain “god.”

So am guessing Altair summoned the LN version of Charon in this case. (or possible used her summoned evil fake ability like the shed did with the Gigas Machina), but am leaning more on the LN version being summoned.

Given how Selesia immediately recognized Charon’s mech, I assume that it’s his same one from the Vogelchevalier series… in which case, WOW that thing is evil looking. Dunno how subtle Matsubara and Marine were with the foreshadowing on this one, lol.

You know, when I look at the pictures, Charon’s mecha is not too different from Selesia’s, just that his comes in a different colour. It doesn’t have to be a villainous colour; it could be trying to channel either the Purple Is Powerful or Blue Is Heroic depending on the lighting.

I don´t know my friends, Charon´s mecha looks evil as hell and I´m not talking only about that hideous purple color, there is something about it that that screams death. And I´m afraid this was Matsubara´s intention from the start, think about it for a second, we know nothing about Charon! Selesia is the heroine of the story and she only says he is her trusted partner but aisde from that zero about who he is and Matsubara is no stranger to bretrayal in his story as Marine told us with beautiful spoiler more than 10 episodes ago, maybe Charon was not such a good guy as Selesia. Many years ago I played a game named Baten Kaitos Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean that did a mind blowing revelation like this theory, check it out if you have the chance.

From the mecha-genre perspective, it’s not unusual to have sub-protags/supporting characters (which I guess what Charon is) piloting mean-looking mechs. From the top of my head, we have Duo Maxwell with his Gundam Deathscythe, Irvine with his Command Wolf/Lightning Saix zoids, Athrun Zala with his Aegis Gundam, Space Guts (Akihiro) from Gundam IBO piloting the monstrous Gundam Gusion and even Kittan Bachika & friends piloting villainous-looking mechs alongside the Gurren Lagann (which they literally took from the villains).

The stage basically has been set so that our dead heroine who’s created this entire situation, can be resurrected. Think about it, they connected Metrora’s world with Blitz’s. Isn’t the most logical thing to revive Altair’s creator, connecting our world to Metrora’s? What about the others?

Also, it’ll probably be Souta who figures out how or accomplishes it. This is because Souta has already managed to unintentionally do it when he met Selestia in her world.

I’m betting that’s what will need to happen, but that’s going to have many unintentional side effects, because you can’t undo that. Which will explain why we’d get a second season of this, is for the fall out of all the worlds being connected.

Also, apparently the readers love the fact that Yuuya’s story got spoiled as they went “that’s so “. Meaning that when Charon goes into his spiel and Selestia goes “yeah, well, I read up on that”, it’ll be great. Also, Mamika’s revival is going to happen and I’m betting that Mamika comes back and does the whole love = friendship thing with Altair and tells Altair that’s how we can save her creator.

The second season’s fall out of all of this (assuming my thoughts are right) would and could be interesting.

Ok i promise i wont write another silly comments this week or else i’ll get stuck with another moderation timeout again (twice last week man! XD)

Ehem, after this episode, after all the skeptic feelings i had for Magane – this time, i felt like she my new friend. The sole role as an observer, or in my case, shes like a pro movie-goer who wants to watch twisted stuffs but aint wanna take sides. After knowing her true intentions, i guess we can finally sleep well tonight huh?http://randomc.net/image/Re%20Creators/Re%20Creators%20-%2018%20-%20Large%2019.jpg

Aoki Ei explained at this year’s Otakon panel that Creators isn’t actually about the Creations fighting; it’s about the creative process, all the joys and pitfalls inherent to that process. Understanding that intent explains many of the creative decisions made to this point (which have infuriated some viewers expecting tons of action).

If Re:creators did a good job making the exploration of the creative process interesting, i dont think people would have been so bored. There’s a difference between the intent a creator has and how that vision actually is executed. The vision Re:creators has is intriguing as all hell but it doesnt explore it’s themes all that well. It’s execution leaves a lot to be desired. People keep thinking that the fact that the show doesnt throw action in your face is the problem, and then use that as reasoning to get on a high horse (not saying you’re doing this) while looking down on others because who arent enjoying the series like a bunch of children

Aoki’s discussion at Otakon didnt really tell anything i didnt know about the conceit of Re: creators; if anything, it only made me slightly disappointed that this aspect of the show’s objective didnt shine as brightly as it could

Aoki Ei is the director, right? If so, I think there are things that he definitely could’ve done a lot better. Throughout the show, I see some missed potential here and there that even I could think of how to do it better. Hiroe Rei can only do so much as the original concept-creator, writer (to some degree) and chara-designer. It all comes back to the director on deciding how to get things done, what to take out or add, and how to make a sequence interesting. Some events are executed excellently, but I would be lying if I say there are no draggy parts in the show, especially the ones where the show repeat some info that we already knew for no good reasons. It’s too bad that Re:Creators is not a manga that Hiroe can fully take control of and do on his own as I think it could’ve been a lot more exciting and enjoyable that way (but first, he needs to keep working to finish that damn Black Lagoon).

Hiroe wrote a raw, unedited version of Re Creators’s story he calls Re Creators:Naked, which forms the basis for the anime. It can be read on the web and will be released in book format this September and October. However, it’s all in Japanese, with no plans yet for English translation.

hahaha a funny argument from aoki…if he really wanted to make an anime that showing the up and down of creator please made an anime with a genre like shirobako or bakuman, what do you expect from audience when you put goku&superman on the arena?? debating about food?

I hope he made an ova that showed a glimpse of the world that the creation lived, so i can understand a little why he or she do this and that, not just conveniently said because the author write him/her like that…it can also clear the problem with syo and mirokuji plot.

If Re:Creators ends as I expect it to now (Altair beaten, everyone living happily ever after), this will be the main bone of contention regarding the show. If the entire purpose was to feature the challenges and fears of creation, then it was pursued the wrong way. For example there was little relevant to the process with Meteora’s earlier monologues, learning who/what Altair was. These developments simply took time and led to the previous remarks about boredom and treading water. The only parts directly relating to this aspect were Souta/Setsuna, and the few remarks from other creators (ex. Suruga this week).

If the show really wanted to play up such exploration, a slice of life approach would have arguably been better. Restructuring the info dumps and still shot panning scenes into moments where you have creations exploring this world would have done wonders to keep our attention while still allowing Re:Creators message to shine. Pretty much a case of a great set of ideas brought down by flawed execution.

If Re:Creators ends as I expect it to now (Altair beaten, everyone living happily ever after), this will be the main bone of contention regarding the show.

Umm…beating Altair (in some way) is one of the main goals of the show. Meteora & the creators team figuring out (to some extend) what her powers are and how she got it and Sota’s confession regarding Altair’s creator are pretty useful for the overall story to help them make a strategy to beat Altair. Failing to beat Altair means the world will be screwed one way or another. So, unless the show goes Shyamalan or nihilistic Evangelion-style on us, I think it’s safe to say that the audience already expected Altair to be beaten from the beginning. The question is how.

As for everyone living happily ever after at the end, I’d have no problem with that as long as the characters (and the show in general) earn it by coming up with proper solutions to all the issues that the show raised. The question is: can the show do that?

There’s really one thing that I absolutely want the show to answer though: the net-bullying issue that drove Setsuna to commit suicide (including Sota’s negative attitude towards her). Since the showrunners raised that issue, I want them to come up with a moral conclusion (or maybe even some kind of a solution) at the end. Is it enough to just have Sota learning to be a better person from that horrible experience? Will reviving Setsuna be enough of a solution? I don’t think so, but at the same time, I don’t really know what more that can be done with it. This is an instance where I know I want more, but I don’t really know what “more” is. I can only depend on the ingenuity of the showrunners to satisfy me or I’ll be disappointed.

If the show really wanted to play up such exploration, a slice of life approach would have arguably been better.

Funnily enough, those SoL moments are what many audience and fans of the show have been asking for. I think it’s one of those potentials that the show failed to explore. I mean, some of them are right there in the ED1 sequence but I guess the showrunners really didn’t want to go in that direction too much. The most that we got are characters commenting on various IRL food & drinks, going to onsen and Selesia driving a car with a proper license. This “villain wanting a world-destruction”-plot really limits the depth of what they can do with the characters. But thanks to that, we can see (to some extend) how the Japanese government participate in this crazy otaku-ish scenario and various creators & creations from different media work together for one giant crossover event, and they can still have fun with it I guess.

Aoki Ei explained at this year’s Otakon panel that Creators isn’t actually about the Creations fighting; it’s about the creative process, all the joys and pitfalls inherent to that process. Understanding that intent explains many of the creative decisions made to this point (which have infuriated some viewers expecting tons of action).

Or, in the show’s meta parlance, from someone writing only for himself to someone willing to share his work far and wide.

Rather ironic that the show would say this, don’t you think? The reality is that the audience is, by and large, indifferent to thematic content (such as the exploration of of the creative process) and simply wishes to be entertained. We don’t care what you’re trying to portray thematically, just do it well and entertain us. By making this Re:Creator’s thematic nexus, does entertaining us, the audience, truly remain the priority, or are the writers writing first and foremost for themselves- for catharsis, self-affirmation, etc.?

Not that self-indulgence matters if you’re a good enough writer to make things interesting and airtight regardless. And I’d even argue that in such cases self-indulgence is value added because the unique individual personality and psychology of the writer sets a narrative-mechanically great work apart from others of its ilk and caliber, allowing it to stand alone as truly unique. Though if your skills aren’t up to snuff…well, my advice is steer clear of it…

It’s definitely catharsis for the writers of the animanga/LN industry, I think. I’m reminded of some author interviews/afterwords where they admit their anxieties on whether their stories/characters will be accepted by the wider audience; ie. whether they’re good creators or not.

It definitely is if the whole point of Re:Creators is just to be some exploratory tale of the trials and tribulations of creation. A story must be entertaining, lack that characteristic and no one cares if it’s the best piece of critical analysis on some societal feature ever to hit the market–if you want that you read an academic work instead. The show has been skirting the edge of this line for a while, but at least for me has managed staying on the right side of entertaining.

There’s certainly an argument Re:Creators has overall failed in both aspects though, particularly if its ending fails to live up to audience expectations. I’m withholding judgement until the end, but it’s hard denying even now the show is still struggling with what it really wants to be.

So I just binge watched this series recently (two weeks ago, twice now) and my takeaway is a lot different in a couple of scenes.

First off, my theory is that Souta’s character is in fact Setsuna who has been written into multiple stories as a character. This whole farce is about gaining the acceptance needed to bring her into this world. Problem is they need the acceptance of the audience to realize it, except … if Magane breaks the rules.

So yeah pretty much I think Setsuna is going to pop up as their ace in the hole to stop Atlair written into the story in such a way that when everything flattens she’ll still be left behind.

I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re right. If Souta’s character was simply strong no one would have any objections to his plan, yet everyone is hesitant about it. Plus there’s the whole atone for Setsuna angle, and it’s not really cathartic enough just destroying Altair—you need to calm her anguished heart. No better way than by having Setsuna do the duty as Erina did for Blitz.

Well if you rewatch the scene in which has the conversation that leads to Magane using her power with that in mind everything falls into place. It even explains why they start talking about real vs fake things.

I definitely think that the show holds up better under a repeat viewing, there’s just tons of word games and imaging that leads to future events.

On a side note, I don’t think the acceptance rate works the way you think it does. Acceptance rate is just for pulling things from creators worlds into ours. Souta and Magane don’t have any need for acceptance rates on themselves since they already exist. Since Magane’s creator is dead she’s got nothing locked by acceptance, and Souta isn’t a creation so he’s out.

Colur me impressed – from creators side using cross-over mechanics to let Meteora cast resurrect on Blitz’s daughter, to Magane being best girl (TM) to the fullest of her capacity. Someone mentioned shipping her and Souta, my reaction – where do I sign up for the crew?
Loved how she mentioned the “vibrance and flavour” of this world as something she wants to savour and, therefore, protect.
Finally, two words:
“For Mamika!”http://randomc.net/image/Re%20Creators/Re%20Creators%20-%2018%20-%20Large%2033.jpg

Didn’t Sho said it himself that the story is kinda dumb in this episode? Also, just because something is complicated doesn’t mean that it can’t be dumb. Just watch/read how convoluted and rather dumb the later parts of Bleach are. It doesn’t help that the author of Sho/Yuya’s manga resembles Kubo Tite a lot :p

Maybe it’s just me but, this episode was kind of left field for me. I didn’t think tables will turn simply with proper planning. This being said I’m sorry but I’m a little lost. I was for sure Altair had the upper hand but how did meteora get ahead?

I think it’s pretty obvious why Altair’s side ended in this predicament (although we don’t know if she’s really at disadvantage or not):
1. Blitz defecting to Meteora’s faction coz his creator (Suruga) has provided him with the very reason he is fighting for: his daughter. That’s a good plan, btw.
2. Magane returning Hangaku to Yuya to help stopping Altair from destroying the world (for fun). Also, she has enabled Souta to create anything either without the need of people’s approval or it will be instantly approved by people (also for fun). We haven’t seen the effect of the later yet.
3. Yuya & Hikayu stopping Sho from fighting further by clearing up his misunderstanding with Yuya in their story by spoiling future reveal straight from the creator (Yatoji).
4. Alice defecting has been foreshadowed long ago after she had a good conversation with her creator (Takarada) and she let him go and seemed to realize who actually killed Mamika. Alice and Takarada somehow have been working together to defect at the right time.
5. Meteora has prepared the spell that’s supposed to be able to disable Altair’s thousand sabers-thingy (executed by Selesia in this episode) and followed by attacks from Alice & Rui (too bad the later attack got deflected by Charon’s cliffhanger appearance ).

Nope. It’s Altair who killed Mamika. Remember all those Altair’s sabers that impaled Mamika’s stomach? She died from all those wounds. All Magane did was just watching her die and use it to manipulate Alice to fight Meteora.

2. Meteora, I thought Altair knew about her spell and was working towards countering it.

Meteora & Matsubara prepared a number of magic to deal with Altair. Turned out not many of them are effective coz Altair just shrugged them off. Altair allowed the birdcage spell to function and went with it to somewhat gain audience approval too (she even postponed killing Selesia inside her mech for audience approval). The latest disarming spell seems to work on Altair (I say “seems” coz the show hasn’t confirmed whether or not it’s effective yet).

You know Volgchevalir shares several simmilarities in its setting with Knights and Magic, they´re both worlds where swords and magic riegn supreme but so develop they can create magitek to create incredible mechas.

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